David Mamet | Criticism

SOURCE: Kellaway, Kate. “Thanks for the Memories.” New Statesman (26 June 1998): 49.

In the following review, Kellaway praises the cast performances, the sets, and the writing in The Old Neighborhood, lauding the subtle, dark nature of the three plays.

A little light shines on a brown case, which casts a shadow. The Old Neighborhood, a trio of plays by David Mamet now at the Royal Court, is about a man cut through at the roots. Bobby's relationships—even with family and old friends—are so insecure they cannot hold him for long. His case waits on the stage like a warning. Bobby is played by Colin Stinton. It is impossible to believe that he is acting: he conveys with absolute naturalness—in the slumped way he sits, in his defeated way of listening—the weight of depression under which he lives, like a wood-louse under a rotten beam.